About the Show

★★★★It’s the single funniest thing I have seen in ages.You’re gonna love this show!Toronto Star

★★★★A fabulously funny parody.
Will tickle the funny bone of every age group.The London Daily Telegraph

PLAYING TO SOLD OUT HOUSES all over the world, the Olivier Award nominated POTTED POTTER – The Unauthorized Harry Experience – A Parody by Dan and Jeff takes on the ultimate challenge of condensing all seven Harry Potter books (and a real life game of Quidditch) into seventy hilarious minutes. Even if you don’t know the difference between a horcrux and a Hufflepuff, POTTED POTTER will make you roar with laughter.

Created by two-time Olivier Award-nominated actors Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, Potted Potter is perfect for ages six to Dumbledore (who is very old indeed).

★★★★Blissfully funny, a winner in every way.
This show is a crowd-pleaser.The London Guardian

Joseph Maudsley

Alternate Performer

James Percy

Alternate Performer

The Creative Team

Richard Hurst

Director

Hanna Berrigan

Associate Director

Simon Scullion

Designer

Tim Mascall

Lighting Designer

Phil Innes

Composer

Phil Innes

Composer

Phil Innes has been making music of all shapes and sizes for more than 20 years. The first album he bought was Themes for Superheroes performed by Geoff Love and His Orchestra. Since then, Phil’s musical taste has grown to encompass a bewildering range of genres. Having played in various bands, he now prefers writing music for theatre and film. Highlights so far have been The Ordinalia Cycle of Plays, The Alchemist, Potted Pirates, Potted Panto, and Barabas. He has a recording studio in Cornwall where he works on his own material as well as producing other artists and bands.

Tim Mascall

Lighting Designer

West End credits include Well (Apollo), Ruby Wax: Losing It (Duchess), Derren Brown: An Evening of Wonder (Garrick), Something Wicked This Way Comes (Old Vic), Enigma (Adelphi), Why the Whales Came (Comedy), The Vagina Monologues (Wyndhams), and Lies Have Been Told (Trafalgar Studios). Other London productions have included The Importance of Being Earnest (Regent’s Park Open Air), Vote Dizzy (Soho), Breakfast With Jonny
Wilkinson (Menier), The Lady of Burma (Riverside), How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (Southwark Playhouse), Chalet Lines (Bush), and Marilyn and Ella (Theatre Royal Stratford East). Tim has also designed for a number of U.K. tours and producing theatres. International work includes productions in Australia, Italy, North America, Germany, Malaysia, South Africa, and Hungary.

Hanna Berrigan

Associate Director

Directing credits include Public Property (Trafalgar Studios), Slowly (Riverside Studios, The Wrestling School), The Lover (Gale Theatre, Barbados), Paradox (RSC), The Real Thing (Osip), God is a DJ (Theatre 503), One Minute (RADA), The Nature of Things (The Place), La Musica Deuxième (Gate), Teenager of the Year (Latitude), The Bald Prima Donna (Etcetera). Hanna worked as Associate Director on The 39 Steps for three years, which involved directing West End casts, the regional tour and new productions in Israel, Italy, and Australia. She has worked as an assistant director at the RSC, the National Theatre and the Royal Court and for Howard Barker. Hanna is an associate of The Wrestling School.

James Percy

Character name

James was born and raised in Doncaster, England. Following a Law Degree at The University of Liverpool, he trained classically at Birmingham School of Acting. Since then, James has worked internationally as an actor and stand-up comedian. Recently, James appeared Off-Broadway in New York City with Potted Potter, followed by a tour of the USA. In 2010, James became the youngest actor to ever play the role of Wilbur Turnblad, in Hairspray:The Musical (USA), a role he reprised in 2011. He has also starred in a variety of productions, including title roles in Julius Caesar (UK Tour) and Romeo & Juliet, The Importance Of Being Earnest (Derby), Snow White (Doncaster), Sleeping Beauty (Wimborne), Edward VIII (National Trust), Dick Whittington (UK Tour), St. Trinian’s: The Musical (London), The Memory Of Water (Birmingham) and Iago in Othello (Birmingham). James also appeared in the American comedy improv show, Throw Me A Line and was the resident comedian on the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of The Seas.
Website – www.jamespercyonline.com / Twitter – @james_percy

Joseph Maudsley

Character name

Joseph was born and raised in Derby, England. He trained at Birmingham School Acting gaining a BA Hons in acting. Since graduating, Joseph has toured theatre internationally, and starred in a number of British independent films, as well as TV and music videos. Most recently Joseph has been working with Oddsocks Productions as an actor musician, touring the UK with outdoor Shakespeare, including Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, Demetrius and Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Orsino and Agucheek in Twelfth Night, with his chosen instrument, the keytar. His TV work has seen him appear as lead role Ben in pilot sitcom Jobseekers. As well as commercials, he has worked on music videos including Union J, Kilter and Toploader.
Film credits include, Memoria, The Grand, The Open Door, Distal and Hiding Father Graham. Theatre credits include, Sweeney Todd (Birmingham Crescent), Jane Eyre (Birmingham Old Rep) and Assassins. You can keep up to date with Joseph and say hello via twitter @JosephMaudsley.

Jefferson Turner

Writer & Creator

Jefferson has been messing about with Dan both on stage and screen since 2005.

He has appeared on TV with the tall one on such shows as Blue Peter (BBC), Richard & Judy (Channel 4), The Slammer (BBC) and Big Brother’s Little Brother (Channel 4), amongst others, as well as residing in the CBBC Office for all of 2009 and a little of 2010.

On stage he has co-written and starred in Potted Potter, Potted Pirates, and Potted Panto with Dan. This has led to U.K. tours, critical acclaim, Olivier nominations for Potted Potter and Potted Panto, and sell-out West End runs.

Jeff thinks he did other work before he met Dan, but Dan says anything Jeff did without him doesn’t matter any more.

Daniel Clarkson

Writer & Creator

Daniel graduated from Bretton Hall in 2000 with a spring in his step and a smile on his face. Many years on, the steps are a little less springy but the smile still remains!

He is probably best known for being one half of the double act Dan and Jeff, creators of Potted Pirates, the Olivier-nominated Potted Panto, and Potted Potter which received its own Olivier nomination in 2012. Next up was Potted Sherlock, which premiered in August 2014.

He was delighted to be able take into North America including two amazing summers in New York. Daniel had a fantastic time throughout 2009–10 presenting in the CBBC Office for the BBC with Jeff, receiving his first-ever fan mail!

Gallery

Timeline

2005

Dan and Jeff are asked to create a five-minute street show recapping the plot of the first five Potter books, for performance to queues of fans waiting for the midnight release of the sixth book.

2006

Under the guidance of director Richard Hurst, the show tours the U.K. including Pleasance Edinburgh, where the seventh book is incorporated just a few days after its release. The tour finishes with a Christmas run at Trafalgar Studios in London.

2007

Potted Potter is born as the street show expands into an hour-long performance in which the first six books are parodied. The show premieres on August 4 at Edinburgh’s Zoo Southside venue. Forging a partnership with producer James Seabright and director Dominic Knutton, Dan and Jeff premiere a new version of the show at Pleasance Islington in October.

2008

More U.K. touring, again playing Edinburgh Fringe and London. Dan and Jeff also launch their second show, Potted Pirates.

2009

Owing to their commitments as Children’s BBC presenters, Dan and Jeff hand over the show to a new cast, David Ahmad and John Helier, who take it on tour to Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne Comedy Festival, and New Zealand Comedy Festival. Dan and Jeff wrestle the show back from them for a third and final Christmas run at Trafalgar Studios.

2010

The show takes a well-earned rest while Dan and Jeff create their new show, Potted Panto, premiering at the Edinburgh Fringe and transferring to the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre for Christmas, where it is nominated as Best Entertainment in the 2011 Olivier Awards.

2011

Potted Potter returns for another tour, starting at Bury St. Edmunds Theatre Royal and including runs at Pleasance Grand and London’s Garrick Theatre.

2012

Potted Potter is nominated for the Best Entertainment and Family Olivier Award and Potted Panto is nominated Best New Comedy in the Whatsonstage Awards. Potted Potter makes its North American premiere in Toronto at the Panasonic Theatre. Following Toronto, Potted Potter opens off-Broadway at New York City’s Little Shubert Theater, followed by eight weeks in Chicago. The show tours across Australasia and South Africa.

2013

The show continues touring in the US and Canada, including a second season off-Broadway and a return season at London’s Garrick Theatre.

2014

Following its Mexican premiere, the show plays its first tour of Ireland, prior to dates on board cruise ships and across Australasia later in the year, concluding with a second season at Toronto’s Panasonic Theatre. Meanwhile, Dan and Jeff created their fourth show, Potted Sherlock, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe and transferred to London’s West End for a Christmas season.

2015

A new tour of the US ran throughout the year, concluding with concurrent Christmas seasons at Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse and San Francisco’s Palace of the Fine Arts.

2016

Dan and Jeff began the year with a tour of Potted Sherlock in the USA, before Potted Potter hit the road with locations including the show’s first trip to Kuala Lumpur, a return visit to DUCTAC in Dubai, and an extensive, coast-to-coast tour of Canada in the Autumn, concluding with seasons in Vancouver and Toronto.

The deliberately daft but utterly delightful Potted Potter is an unauthorised attempt to condense all seven Harry Potter books into one hour’s stage time, and saves you an awful lot of reading. There’s sure to be an authorised stage version one day that will take the stories altogether more seriously, but they will be hard pressed to summon such genuine affection and wit – let alone get the audience to play a game of Quidditch with just a bouncing ball.

Things begin a little ominously for this fearless duo of reduced Rowling, writer-performers Jeff and Dan, who promise to deliver all seven Harry Potter books on stage, in just over an hour. Jeff is a Harry Potter expert/addict. Dan, however, is entirely ignorant of everything Hogwarts-related. Thus he has kitted out the stage with two fluffy warthogs, and a shabby wardrobe, through which he’s expecting all the characters to disappear to Narnia. And the audience is faced with the tiresome prospect of an hour of Jefferson Turner’s very straight man, whipping himself into a fury at the unfailing ineptitude of wacky odd-ball Daniel Clarkson.
But when Jeff picks up the first Potter instalment to boil down to five-minute size, dramatic matters take several turns for the better. Jeff is an overly enthused, bespectacled Harry, while Dan, a limitless supply of bad hats and dodgy plastic puppets to hand, plays everyone else, with increasingly anarchic, persuasive charm.

Their dealings with hecklers, like the treatment of the Potter series in general, is always cheekily rude, rather than snearingly mean, and it’s the buoyant geniality of the near impossible task at hand that renders it so endearing to the all-ages audience. That and the raucous game of quidditch, involving a blow-up globe, two large hoops, and a larger-than-life snitch that flies with the aid of flapping Marigold gloves. Voldemort’s refrain, ‘I Won’t Survive?’, marks a gloriously irreverent finale to a joyous, unarguably thin, but very lovable romp through Rowling’s back catalogue.

There was an alarming moment when my 14-year-old son and I entered the foyer of the Trafalgar Studios only to find the place bursting at the seams with tiny tots with ages ranging from five to eight.

I’d persuaded Edward to come to Potted Potter on the basis that this was going to be a devastating parody of JK Rowling’s books, and that it would be mocking, sophisticated and clever. In fact it, looked as though we were going to be in for the theatrical equivalent of Jackanory. Edward assumed that martyred look of the self-conscious teenager with an unreliable parent. Forty years earlier, I would have adopted an identical expression myself.

But, in fact, the show turns out to be a bit of a blast. The two performers Dan and Jeff are a classic double act, with Jefferson Turner playing the Ernie Wise role of the perennially hopeful yet permanently aggrieved straight man, while Daniel Clarkson adopts the Eric Morecambe persona of the dotty surrealist who knows exactly how to wind his partner up.

Initially, I found Dan’s wild-eyed, manic manner and constant shouting a touch fatiguing, but surprised myself by greatly warming to him as the show progressed.

What’s remarkable about Potted Potter is that it genuinely seems to appeal to audiences of all ages, as Dan and Jeff attempt to race through all seven Harry Potter books in just one hour.

After a slightly tedious opening, in which Jeff berates Dan for not securing the props, sets and actors he’d demanded, the duo get cracking on the books. Plump and amiable, Jeff plays the boy wizard, and Dan plays all the other roles, heroically undeterred by the fact that he seems to have only the most distant acquaintance with Rowling’s epic oeuvre.

The pair whip up an atmosphere of crazy delirium with glove-puppet monsters, enjoyably awful jokes, quick changes, silly accents and frenzied slapstick. And the audience participation proves riotous, especially in a frenzied game of Quidditch, in which poor Jeff finds himself absurdly dressed up as the golden snitch and the adults in the audience behave even worse than the kids when it comes to gaining possession of the Quaffle.

As someone who gave up on the Potter books (along with my wife and son) when faced with the dauntingly long fourth instalment, deciding that life was too short for quite so much turgid prose and repetitive plotting, the irreverence of this show comes as a blessed relief. And while adults can enjoy seeing JK Rowling’s disappointingly ponderous and po-faced fiction so gleefully sent up, the tinies are manifestly, and audibly, getting a real buzz out of the sheer anarchy of it all.

It will be a some time before I forget mild-mannered Jeff suddenly cracking and complaining about just how boring the character of Harry Potter actually is, even longer before the spectacle of Dan as Dumbledore, “the only wizard in the village”, fades from the memory as he sings the great gay anthem I Am What I Am. Listen out, too, for Voldemort’s version of the disco classic I Will Survive.

For those looking for an alternative to pantomime which will tickle the funny bone of every age group, this bonkers and blessedly brief show is just the ticket.

Sublimely potty and done with the lightest of touches, this daft two-man parody of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels is a bliss fully funny 75 minutes for anyone with a passing acquaintance with the boy wizard and He Who Must Not Be Named. Like all really good parodies, Dan and Jeff’s “unauthorised Harry Experience” is both a send-up and a heartfelt homage. It also incorporates recent revelations, so that the outed Dumbledore becomes “the only wizard in the village”.

In fact, it is all terrific family entertainment, as performers and writers Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner “muggle” along with just the right mix of boyish exuberance and cack-handed charm. Dan, in particular, often seems a trifle confused between his Potter and his Lord of the Rings and Narnia adventures. Then there is his misunderstanding about the difference between Hogwarts and warthogs. And when he plays the Defence of the Dark Arts teacher, Lupin, the werewolf has inexplicably transmuted into an elephant. These mixups weigh heavily on self-appointed Harry Potter expert Jeff, all the more because Dan has used all the money set aside to employ 20 actors on the dragon in Book Four. The dragon, needless to say, turns out to be a severe disappointment.

At moments, there is a touch of the National Theatre of Brent in the prickly relationship between Dan and Jeff. This is also the only show in town in which the audience get to participate in a game of quidditch, even though Dan appears to think that a vacuum cleaner can be substituted for a Nimbus 2000 and Jeff has a trying time as the Golden Snitch. A winner in every way.

The cleverest thing about this two-man parody (updated, book by book) is that it appeals both to the ardent fan as an in-joke, and to parents… Precision disguised as incompetence is a perennial form of comedy. These guys are good.

With all the Harry Potter books and movies done, and no new material to pore over, where can a devoted Muggle get a fix? You could fly to Florida, to the Universal Studios Orlando theme park. Or over to Britain, where tours of the films’ sets, at Leavesden Studios outside London, have begun. Online, there’s always J. K. Rowling’s Pottermore Web site.

Or you could make your way to the Little Shubert Theater, where the gloriously goofy “Potted Potter” is being staged. Billed as “the unauthorized Harry experience,” this parody makes the perfect claim for the Twitter age: all seven books — roughly 4,000 pages — in 70 minutes.

Potted Potter is the antic creation of Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, better known in Britain as Dan and Jeff, onetime presenters on CBBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s children’s network. In the best two-man comedy tradition, Jeff, the shorter one, is the straight man, the expert on all things Harry; Dan, the taller one, is the one who’s faking it, confusing the series with The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Using bad wigs and Silly String on a set so cheap it might have been furnished by Craigslist, Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Turner do indeed tell an abbreviated, ridiculous version of the Boy Who Lived. Mr. Turner plays Harry, though when he wears those signature glasses, he looks more like that pinball wizard, Elton John. Mr. Clarkson, channeling a caffeinated Robin Williams, plays everyone else, including, among others, Ron and Hermione; Draco Malfoy; Snape; the Weasleys; Sirius Black; Mad-Eye Moody; Dumbledore; and, of course, He Who Must Not Be Named.

Dobby, the house elf, makes an appearance, as does Nagini, Voldemort’s snake; Death Eaters and — crucial to Mr. Clarkson, at least — the dragon from Book 4. A highlight is the game Quidditch played with audience participation. And a very golden Snitch.

Potted Potter grew from a five-minute street sketch recapping the first five books that the two created in 2005 to entertain Potter fans lined up for the release of the sixth, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. When they expanded it with runs in the West End in London and in Toronto, they no doubt took some cues from the popular Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

The flavor is Monty Python meets vaudeville, ragged and thrown together in a spirit similar to fan-created homages like Potter Puppet Pals and A Very Potter Musical. You don’t need to know all the plot twists and nuances of Hogwarts to enjoy the in-jokes, though clearly most of the delighted crowd does. (On the off chance you’re in the middle of the series, be warned: spoilers lurk throughout, though the original does not include a disco ball.)

Besides, if you miss something, another laugh will be along shortly. Clearly Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Turner attended Professor Flitwick’s charms class, because the duo casts the perfect spell over the audience: Reductio ad absurdum.